The present invention relates generally to an electrical connection between a battery pack and an electronic device and, in particular, to an insert molded battery contact assembly including selectively plated surfaces for connection to an electronic device.
In designing a battery contact assembly for an electronic device such as a cellular phone or the like, it is a goal to provide contact in a minimum space with minimum cost, while at the same time being easily manufactured in high volume and of course meeting the mechanical and electrical requirements for functionality.
A battery-device connection typically has a solid contact element and a spring contact element. The spring element is usually the more expensive and space-consuming part, so in minimizing battery size, this half of the connection is often put in the device. Moreover, a significantly greater number of batteries are manufactured and purchased than the devices themselves, and it is considerably more cost effective to put the more expensive spring element in the device as opposed to including it with the battery pack. Typically, there is also a requirement for gold-plating the contact mating surfaces. Connection and plating is achieved in various ways, including coil and leaf spring elements, flat, rigid contact members, and direct contact to the ends of the cells.
Earlier contact solutions did not provide optimal designs to overcome the shortcomings noted above. In particular, the battery size was not conducive to spring contacts in the battery. Moreover, other solutions lacked insulation between the positive contact and the negative cell and vice versa or between the positive and negative contacts themselves, resulting in a short circuit risk. Applications exist where insulation is provided between contacts and cells, but these applications involve added assembly components, steps, complexity and cost.